Kelly MacDowell
Developing brand guidelines for the newly renamed Nordstrom Trunk Club
BRANDING
EDITORIAL DIRECTION
COPYWRITING
Nordstrom officially acquired the Chicago-based personal styling service Trunk Club in late 2014, and continued to leave the brand untouched for a few years. But in 2019, they decided it was finally time to officially merge the two brand identities.
This, of course, led to an exhaustive design and content exercise. How do we integrate Nordstrom’s icon status while maintaining the uniqueness that made Trunk Club such a popular start-up?
As Trunk Club’s Editorial Director and subject-matter expert on all things content, I owned the development, implementation, and continued oversight of the first brand voice guidelines to be used across the enterprise.
I regularly audited marketing channels for adherence and consistency and collaborated with company leadership to ensure consideration of department-specific materials and placements.
First, we had to define our unique purpose.
Trunk Club’s offering—personal styling, in-person or online—was much more specific than Nordstrom’s. So we had to start there.
Next step: Translate the new design identity into voice and tone guidelines.
I took the three brand pillars developed in collaboration with our Creative Director and Marketing Director and developed attributes specific to copywriting. I also showed how these three attributes—bold, magnetic, welcoming—should come to life in actual Trunk Club placements.
Then I had to develop omni-channel communication strategies.
It’s one thing to define your voice and tone. It’s quite another to learn when and where to lean into different attributes. Developing this piece took a lot of collaboration with leadership across the company. How did they want the brand to show up for them during their phase of the customer life cycle?
There’s more, but it’d only be interesting to the real word nerds.
But if you want to see the slides about terminology, style, and mechanics, let me know!
Kelly MacDowell
Developing brand guidelines for the newly renamed Nordstrom Trunk Club
BRANDING
EDITORIAL DIRECTION
COPYWRITING
Nordstrom officially acquired the Chicago-based personal styling service Trunk Club in late 2014, and continued to leave the brand untouched for a few years. But in 2019, they decided it was finally time to officially merge the two brand identities.
This, of course, led to an exhaustive design and content exercise. How do we integrate Nordstrom’s icon status while maintaining the uniqueness that made Trunk Club such a popular start-up?
As Trunk Club’s Editorial Director and subject-matter expert on all things content, I owned the development, implementation, and continued oversight of the first brand voice guidelines to be used across the enterprise.
I regularly audited marketing channels for adherence and consistency and collaborated with company leadership to ensure consideration of department-specific materials and placements. Scroll through select pages from this expansive document below.
First, we had to define our unique purpose.
Trunk Club’s offering—personal styling, in-person or online—was much more specific than Nordstrom’s. So we had to start there.
Next step: Translate the new design identity into voice and tone guidelines.
I took the three brand pillars developed in collaboration with our Creative Director and Marketing Director and developed attributes specific to copywriting. I also showed how these three attributes—bold, magnetic, welcoming—should come to life in actual Trunk Club placements.
Then I had to develop omni-channel communication strategies.
It’s one thing to define your voice and tone. It’s quite another to learn when and where to lean into different attributes. Developing this piece took a lot of collaboration with leadership across the company. How did they want the brand to show up for them during their phase of the customer life cycle?
There’s more, but it’d only be interesting to the real word nerds.
But if you want to see the slides about terminology, style, and mechanics, let me know!